pokemick176

Light Yagami is the perfect student, probably the smartest you'll ever see. He picks up a Death Note on his way home from school and his life is changed forever. He goes on a killing spree by ridding the world of all evil (or what he deems evil, rather). A detective named L Lawliet decided that this was too much, and stepped in to end Light's killing spree. They fight a long battle of wits!

The second arc comes along, a wannabe named Near and a chocoholic named Mello become the new protagonists (well actually Mello is more of an anti-hero). Anyway, they challenge Light (who is still trying to kill these evil guys). But Light is very smart, how will they be able to put a stop to reign of evil? The only way to find out is...

Read the manga.

We arrive at the scene of a crime in action. A murdering massacre is taking place at some expensive-looking mansion. With a VERY literal BANG! People are dropping dead like flies hitting electric killers and you’ve caught the killers red-handed. It’s all blood and gore in the first scene of Babel and there is nothing you can do to stop it.

So why is this happening? Who wants who dead? Can you get a gun like that too?

What?!
*Tut, tut*

Violence is not the answer, boys and girls; you should talk about your differences and settle things like imaginary good-respectable-adults (I mean who does this anyway?).

The story was fast-paced and stress-filled; it’s like you pacing in your room, over and over, trying to get the gist of what’s going on before someone else’s signs of life come to a nasty end. You’re hurriedly trying to piece together plans and happenings as you read through this harassing tale, no sitting back and trying not to fall asleep: you WILL get your hands dirty so get your game on and forget all your niceties.
Leave them at home or at the neighbours: get it?

Please tell me you got it?

The illustrations I’m going to tell you are weird, not bad-weird but weird-weird, you know? I mean, the illustrator had PAIN –and I mean PAIN!- stakingly coloured everything in by hand, the poor bloke. I bet his hand hurt from all that effort and his head became filled with a just MADDENING haze (try colouring in every piece of furniture and character, again and again, for hours and hours. I’m getting MAD just thinking about it!). But all the effort has not gone to waste, because readers WILL appreciate the fine shadows, evoking details, and because of the use of traditional mediums in illustration (aka. colour pencils), there is even texture that readers WILL bathe their eyes in.


Isn’t that right readers...?

*Crooks eyebrow*

Yeah, I thought so.


The characters were funny, and strangely realistic. Daring attributes spark the high-stake situations and underlying worry decorates the floor. The features and faces change the scenes moods, which are immensely varied; but at all times, the golden rule is remembered:

No big fish gets drunk. Full stop.

You won’t see no big bad wolf swinging a bottle and singing an equivalent of ‘he’s a jolly good fellow!’ No sir.

All in all, I would recommend this. I had a lot of fun reading it and it was a nice refreshing dose of gangsta battles without chapters of rape and nudity, or excessive side-effects and corny stories trying to be what they never will be: fast-paced with non-sissy action.

The writer tried to go for traditional both in plot (sorta) and in illustration (no arguments here), the saying ‘old but gold’ isn’t full of air and was the right stuff for this story.

So put your hands around this book, grab it and don’t let go. Allow your eyes to rove through the pages of secret plotting and brash gunbattles; you won’t want to miss this.



P.S.

The preview front cover doesn't do the book justice.
And speaking pf justice, remember, crime doesn't pay!

Yeah, right.

Story - I don't read very many slice of life mangas because it just doesn't appeal to me to me reading about someone else's boring life when im trying to forget about my own boring life and engulf myself in a story... that being said, I have no idea what i just read lol... I know slice of life have no main plots but this seemed to be the slice of life to... slice of life... nothing happen felt like it was ended before it even began don't bother picking this up unless you are very bored and just want to read from what i saw an could've been an interesting story of a teacher/student relationship however it ends before it began...

Art - the art reminded me of Matsumoto, Jiro's drawings with many shadings
however not as detailed as his since when you see his drawings you don't get confused between the characters each of them are unique in their own way... however in this i was confusing the characters

Characters - no character development was 2 short they just threw characters at me seldom if any back story to any of them

Enjoyment - Well if actually kept going and progressed into a story perhaps i wouldn't have felt so let down at the end...

Overall - I gave it a 6 since the story seemed like it could be interesting so i did enjoy it while i read it but when i finished it i felt myself thinking "thats it...?" this is something i expect from Oneshots but not from a manga

I feel like the majority of people who read this manga go in expecting something that this manga is not. I feel like they expect this manga to take itself seriously because of the (rather mild) gore scenes. Please don't read Saitama Chainsaw Shoujo expecting a serious story! This manga isn't quite a parody, but it is a manga that I consider to be comical. I feel like that was the intention of the mangaka; just to make something that - despite bloody murder - is humorous and lighthearted.

STORY (6):
Saitama Chainsaw Shoujo is a short manga revolving around Kirisaki Fumio, a quiet girl with a wild imagination and love for books. The manga is told from Fumio's perspective, and because of her imagination and inner-dialogue, makes the plot simple yet funny. As short as this manga is, the story tells in a way that doesn't seem rushed, as everything is set out at a smooth pace.

Despite the few and light gore scenes, Saitama Chainsaw Shoujo is anything but horror and really doesn't treat such scenes seriously. It doesn't treat anything seriously, actually. This manga focuses less on its plot and more on its protagonist and its audience. It follows Fumio with a bright spotlight; her actions, her thoughts, and her relationship with other characters, make up most of this nonsensical yet fun and silly story.

ART (7):
Saitama Chainsaw Shoujo's art is crisp, clean, and nice. The characters are easily distinguishable, and their designs aren't bad, either. Down to the smallest detail, the art for this manga is pretty nice and pleasantly simple. The anatomy of the characters is fine and mostly realistic. The backgrounds aren't eye-catching, but they aren't messy and cramped. The panels are easy to follow, so this manga makes an uncomplicated read art-wise.

CHARACTER (6):
Saitama Chainsaw Shoujo has a small cast of characters; reading through the manga, you'll probably notice that the only characters whose thoughts and personality are focused on, are Fumio and her friend, Kaoruko. We get to know little to nothing of the other characters, but I don't think that is a necessarily bad thing, as Fumio and Kauroko take up most of the manga.

ENJOYMENT (8):
For me, this manga was unique and fun. At its end, I found myself happy with reading it and puzzled as to why it has such a negative feedback. Saitama Chainsaw Shoujo is a whimsical, enjoyable, and memorable read, and I would suggest it to anyone looking for a short but sweet, comical manga.

OVERALL (7):
Overall, I think Saitama Chainsaw Shoujo is worth a read, and undeserving of its low rating.

Story - 5
Competition where you fight to the death? Check
Supernatural beings? Check
Characters are given superpowers? Check
Action packed from the get go? Check
Hidden plot later in the series: Reach chapter 17 to unlock!!!!!!!!
Ladies and gentlemen, what we have here is a pretty much decent action manga in the mortal kombat inspired format. Is it superpowers you want? You got it. You can tell enough work was put into the mechanics of the powers and how they're used. You have supernatural beings who just seek the thrill of humans fighting to the death so they end up blessing people with superpowers for their entertainment. Where do these supernatural beings come from? Are they aliens? Are they human beings from an advanced civilization in the future? You have the modern world with all the politics and people doing whatever they doing. BOOM! Chaos ensues.

Art - 7
The art is good to me. As you can tell, it's identical to Gamble Fish (you can connect the dots as to how they both relate). There are times when the quality drops but it's not important as it's still good and you don't need to bother about it. It's violent and gory. People off with their heads. I like it like that!!

Character - 6
This is where things get really interesting but disappointing also. With the way the story is fleshed out, there's no real MC to pinpoint. Yes, it starts off with Rinji but as you progress through chapters, you realise he isn't the manga's MC. You're shown a little of every relevant characters background as they're introduced and what fuels them. Cliche format. There's no heartfelt reaction to any of the characters to be honest. Well amidst all of this, the new characters introduced after the first stage of the story sure heated things up. You'll have to read the manga to find out. I was a science student in highschool, so to have seen these characters introduced sure as hell captivated me. It's because of this characters I'm giving this a 6 instead of a 5.

Enjoyment - 7
Well, it's action packed enough to keep me interested. I like how how it's in a tournament format, but that comes with a negative: characters aren't fleshed out deeply (and a solid MC isn't established). It's a fast-paced manga which is good but this hinders the possibility of this manga having a relevant story to pay attention to. The characters introduced later on sure made me give this an extra plus, re-reading stuff I learnt in highschool and more. I really enjoyed this aspect.

Overall - 6
A good quick read if you're looking for some immediate action-packed and gory manga where the characters are superpowered. Your favourite characters can get killed real quick, nothing is ever guaranteed. As you can see, this is a quick review without any real thought put into it. That's the same mentality you need to approach this manga with. This manga is weak and barely average but when you start reading, the little details and characters added later on gave this a huge plus. You can learn a lot if you're a fan of general knowledge. If you're a mortal kombat fan, what draws you to it? Ain't it the action and brutality?

*DROPS MIC*

My personal rating of this manga is very poor.

I'm not a judge of art, so my comments will focus on the storyline, credibility, characterization and morality.

The topic of the series is "prostitution". As such, I felt it was taken very lightly. It was an idealization of prostitution and rape instead of a recrimination towards a society that allows such barbarism.

This work could be falsely praised to be "mature"and "deep" because it deals with such a complicated topic. Yet the main characters portrayed are entirely flat and overly perfect/good, which is perhaps an innate quality in shojo manga, but does not suit the severe situations portrayed.

-Warning spoilers ahead-

For example, in the first story we find a girl who actually wants to become a "doll". I found this so wrong it wasn't even funny. The character is such an "angel", she feels sorry even for a sadistic man who whips her unconscious every night. I'd say, next time you want to do like Garcia Marquez in Mis Putas Tristes and going on about the undeveloped tits and quivering hips of a little girl in the arms of a pedophile, at least give the character a working brain so we can see she's not just a masochist who enjoys being a prostitute because everyone praises her.

Second story was just as ethically corrupted. Here's a prize of a main male lead: a pimp who is ruthless enough to break the new acquired girls in a raping orgy. Not happy with that, he actually decides the heroine is too lifeless, thus making her fall in love with him so she can do her best for the costumers and fight the rest of his harem for his affection. If you ever read the story, I want you to pay close attention to the ending and tell me if he's not being a two-faced, sadistic pig because he never changes his attitude towards the other prostitutes.

The third and last story I will discuss here was at least a bit more bearable, even if it does include sexual abuse from a father figure towards his daughter.

tl;dr: A light manga about a girl so happy that she can make the reader feel happy, but that is incredibly repetitive with no plot. 

This is an episodic manga about a girl who has fun on her own and is perfectly happy doing so. The way each episode is told is from the perspective of someone watching her, often her butler, but others as well, as she completely defies their expectations and manages to have fun by herself. This is from where most of the humor arises. Plus, the art is pretty solid in that it’s cute and makes her look really happy, which is nice and actually pretty heartwarming considering the context and feels like a pretty strong inspiration to loners. The thing though, is that there’s no story beyond that at all with the characters all being pretty flat and simply to hold up the humor. Hence, this structure while enjoyable enough on its own, quickly gets repetitive, as it’s that exact structure for every chapter.  

Recently, I've been endlessly searching for shoujo manga that differ from the standard romance between male and female. I was looking for something dark, edgy, and dramatic. Thus, after finding one manga that fit my tastes, I began reading a chain of manga thanks to the user recommendations until I eventually found this Tobenai Tori. Because it was never reviewed before, I started typing this out of boredom and necessity.

Tobenai Tori is a three chapter romance story with one chapter containing an irrelevant side story and a one shot called Bitter Tears. I'll only be reviewing Tobenai Tori and not the one shot.

Although I said I was looking for manga without cliches and stereotypes, this manga does contain some. This plot follows the story between two childhood friends: Aoi and Kaoru. Despite being cliched childhood friends, the this manga deviated from standard shoujo romances with dark characters and unfortunate events. Although I have the past of some of the characters aren't necessarily original, the mangaka does a skillful job of portraying them with an emotional atmosphere in the limited space he has.

In fact, I think the small amount of chapters is the reason why I enjoyed this manga so much. In only three chapters, the manga manages to create appealing characters with a profound sense of emotion. The characters are shown to develop and grow as they overcome their hardships throughout the story.

Ultimately, I think this is a very solid manga. Because its only five chapters in length, it is easily readable in one sitting and can be finished within 30 minutes. For a thirty minute read, this manga provided me with a satisfying romance that was emotional enough to slightly affect me. This certainly wasn't a masterpiece, but I would recommend this to any romance reader with 30 minutes to spare.

*Disclaimer*
Just personal scratch.
Advised, possible spoilers.
Opinion & Informal

Art: 5/10
The anatomy and proportions checked out. There were not any notable environmental or panoramic shots. Neither was there a lot of impact shots or artistic showcases. The art, compared to the previous installment, I felt was a downgrade. The death and gruesome scenes were toned down a lot so much so that the whole manga felt either very censored or PG-13 when comparing it to what was shown in the previous installment. The impact shots that were used didn't seem too impactful to me. Overall, nice details were mostly not there or a bit basic. The backgrounds and extras were alright; the personal rooms honestly had the most detail in the entire manga. The gruesome scenes seemed a bit tame compared to the prequel which is a minus considering the prequel set up a lot of momentum for this sequel.

Panel Progression: 5/10
The panel progression felt a bit quick. The clarity of the progression was a bit lacking as well. Like the previous installment, the pacing was a bit too quick so it ended up hurting the clarity by not having enough panels or speech bubbles to support what was going on sometimes. The general discussions were mostly fine, but it was very clear towards the end of the manga that the progression rushed itself way too fast going so far as to skip or gloss over entire deaths, conversations, etc. The panel layout was nice-looking but that was about it. There wasn't too much flair in the form of panel cutting or impact sequences; the executions were really lame and seemed like they were purposely toned down and were allocated only a page or two.

Characters: 4/10
The characters were lame. Exactly like the prequel, many of the characters were given uninteresting to interesting setups. However, those setups were quickly snuffed out just like how those same characters were quickly killed off for some of the dumbest and out-of-nowhere reasons. Character development was non-existent for anyone except for the MC glasses girl because everyone but her dies off before any of their stories or growth can come to fruition/completion. The growth of the MC was predictable and uninspiring. Her sudden change of personality was exactly that, way too sudden. Her change of character starting around the middle of this manga was way too abrupt and had almost no support to it. She just somehow suddenly started to like death and killing people. There was no inward contemplation, no resolution, nothing.

Plot: 5/10
Sequel to previous Jinrou Game and the initial chapter or three were quite interesting actually. The previous installment set up a lot of momentum for this manga.

Development: 4/10
Predictable development. 100% without a doubt of course the MC glasses girl is going to survive. Judging by how the glasses MC girl's character abruptly changed midway through the manga, the betrayal of the blonde werewolf girl was also predictable. The specific intricacies of the dynamics between the characters as well as their frantic debates was the only interesting part about the development in this manga. Those same dynamics and debates were however shunted because of how stupidly the characters that were responsible for juicy developments were killed off. If not just killing them off, the juicy developments were straight up either dropped completely or resolved by just killing those characters off so as not to explain or spend time on them.

Conclusion: 4/10
Predictable conclusion that left no motivation to want to read a possible sequel (ahem, Crazy Fox). All the questions that were brought up across both current installments of Jinrou Game, excluding Crazy Fox, were not answered at all. Seriously, no questions were answered at all. Who's responsible for the game? Why are students of the same high school being chosen? What is the aim of the game?

Overall: 5/10
This sequel was a bust. There was no reasoning at all as to why the MC's heart changed. There was no personal struggle or conscientious battle. The resolve that the MC showed at the end of the prequel was completely dropped without explaining why; it didn't give any foundation for her fall. She just so happened to conveniently fall to make it easier for the narrative to flow into a "join them" conclusion. I do not think this sequel is worth reading. Pretend Jinrou Game ended with the first installment. It's much better that way. I gave this a 5 rather than a 4 because I felt that while there were a lot of things I disliked about this sequel, I appreciate the story that both installments present as a whole: the fall and tainting of a person. While I thought the overall execution could have been done differently, the Jinrou Game series is entertaining for what it is.

Both Japanese and western comedy have a tradition of duos composed of an idiot and a straight man. It is very rare to see the role of the idiot taken by a woman, and when it is, the woman typically has the persona of a bimbo or airhead.
In Aho Girl we have the role of the idiot portrayed by a character who is not a passive bimbo or moe airhead, but the aggressively stupid Yoshiko. In an novel way this breaks with the traditional portrayal of stupid girls in manga because there is little to no effort made to portray Yoshiko as moe or even sympathetic. She is an idiot, a burden to those around her, and any redeeming qualities she may have are overshadowed by the chaos she creates. Even in situations that would normally be fanservice when her skirt is flipped or she is sleeping in her underwear, the reactions of the other characters are disgust and disdain as opposed to nose-bleeding ecchi. The audience is treated to equal opportunity idiocy as Yoshiko's antics don't rely on her being a girl, but rather her being a moron who just so happens to be a girl.
As a foil to Yoshiko, we have Akutsu (usually just A-kun) who plays the straight man. When we first meet A-kun it seems like his treatment of Yoshiko is rather harsh, but as the story progresses, we can empathize with his frustration over his neighbor's antics. But, at the same time, he is not an overly empathetic character. In his interactions with other characters he is a bit of an asshole and not entirely an innocent victim of Yoshiko's stupidity. He's not an utter villain that we enjoy seeing suffer either, and because he is neither a complete devil or saint, what could be a one-note character takes on some depth.
Other characters orbit around the main duo drawn in by the gravity of Yoshiko's stupidity and unable to escape. Its a common theme for Yoshiko to burst into someone else's life and create chaos with the iron-clad assurance that she has a solution to a problem, even when there is no problem in the first place.
The art can be surprisingly dynamic without too much complexity. Communicating complex actions via expressions and non-verbal poses is really well done and aids the comedic beats and character portrayals. You can practically hear the wet smacking noises as Yoshiko chews with her mouth open and sprays bits of bananas as she talks. The 4-koma format is utilized well and provides beats between scenes or gags, though some jokes or story elements need multiple columns to get to one punchline.
Overall, there is no greater story or romance, making this a gag manga in the purest sense. This makes the manga easy to pick up anywhere and reading chapters in order isn't especially necessary. This simplicity is a bit of a rarity as so many comedic manga (even 4-koma types) insert serious arcs to varying effect.
If you are looking for a simple laugh, then Aho Girl is a good choice.